Czech Republic’s high court rules against forced surgeries for trans people

The Czech Republic’s Constitutional Court has struck down a law that required transgender people to undergo sex organ and sterilization surgeries before completing their legal transition. The ruling now brings the country in line with most European Union (EU) member nations.

In a 13-2 ruling, the 15-judge court decided in favor of a trans man who was assigned female at birth but wished to change the gender markers on his government-issued documents without having to undergo surgery. In its ruling, the court called the law “unconstitutional,” “a violation of human dignity,” and said it was “at odds with the fundamental right of trans people for the protection of their physical integrity in relation to their human dignity,” Reuters reported.

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People are more likely to regret having kids than having gender-affirming care

Very few patients regret gender-affirming surgeries, even though regret is often cited as a reason to restrict gender-affirming care by law.

Such surgical requirements may have originated in Sweden in the 1970s from the prejudiced belief that trans people were mentally ill and unfit to care for a child, The Economist reported.

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Furthermore, irreversible sterilizations cannot be achieved by medication, vasectomy, or tubal ligation since all of those are reversible. Instead, permanent sterilization requires the removal of ovaries in trans men or testes in trans women, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report noted. HRW also noted that the U.S.-based Christian legal organization, Alliance Defending Freedom, has issued amicus briefs and other legal filings supporting trans-related sterilization and surgery requirements in European courts.

The Czech court gave parliament until 2025 to change the law. However, the parliament could create other requirements — such as requiring trans people to provide supporting expert medical opinions, undergo a mandatory waiting period, or complete additional government forms — before allowing trans people to legally change their gender.

A majority of EU nations don’t require trans people to undergo sterilizations before legally changing their gender. As of July 2023, 25 of the 27 EU member states provided legal gender recognition procedures — of those 25, four demanded sterilization. The Czech court’s decision has now lowered that number to three.

In 2013, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture specifically called upon all nations to end forced sterilizations for trans people, the Associated Press reported.

Czech Human Rights Commissioner Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková praised the court’s recent decision, writing, “Congratulations to all transgender people in our country. Today is an important milestone on the road to greater dignity and protection of your rights. I am very happy.”

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